Conservation Organizations (facts vs myths)

[Duck Butter]

Seems to be a good bit of bashing on some of the conservation organizations and lots of that seems to be from misinformation. I work for a conservation organization and I think several others on this site work and/or volunteer for some as well. And they are probably pulling out their hair also when reading some of these comments Some like to say 'drinking the koolaid, but I call it being informed This is likely not going to go over well, but if it changes one person's mind maybe it is a good thing

Funding
First off, remember that these are non-profit organizations and you are bound by the almighty $. You are limited to what you can do by the amount of $ you have. (It would be nice if DU or Delta could just buy up all the land in the Prairie Pothole region and conserve the ducks there, but thats a little expensive.) These organizations are not selling a product but rather their services. Yes, you can sell magazines and bumper stickers and hats, etc. but that little bit of money just pays for the electricity bill essentially. You have to get funding from donations or grants.

Board Members
In our case, we have a panel of board members who are appointed (much like LWF Commission). These are not scientists or biologists but many are just successful individuals and know how to run a business (after all its a business in a sense). At a board meeting, you present them with all your ideas that you want to implement on the ground and they (looking at it from a whole different perspective) look at these projects and give their insights on which ones to implement. They are looking at what is the best return on investment, whether or not its feasible, and the risks associated with the projects, etc. All they have is the information at hand, and they decide upon them.
Similarly LWF Commission works the same way, they are appointed and they are not biologists or scientists (if you handed Ronnie Graham a tripletail he would probably say 'dang thats a huge white perch'), they know about policy however and their decisions are based on what information they are presented.
When a project is proposed, we have to dot all our i's and cross all the t's to make sure that no board member or family member will benefit or get special treatment from the project UNLESS there is no other alternative. The very first thing that happens when you enter a contract agreement is to make sure of this.Remember the sihtstorm **** Cheney got in when Halliburton was awarded the contract for Iraq/Afghanistan operations? Even though no other company but them had the capacity to run that operation? No one wants that but sometimes its the only way. For instance see below the DU portion

Easements
Owning land is very expensive - fact. You have to pay for its upkeep and that can sometimes require hiring more people to accomplish that. One of the best things to do in order to further your conservation goals is to purchase an easement on property. For pennies on the dollar you just bought the rights to manage that property the way you see fit without the headaches of land ownership.

Ducks Unlimited
These guys are the poster child for misinformation and misdirected hatred I can't speak for them but only about what I know and this is what I know:
Private lands constitute the majority of land in this country, so it would make sense that private lands get more attention when it comes to $ spent on waterfowl conservation right?
When an organization gets money to fund a project in a conservation area, the first thing they will do is look on a map and see where these important waterfowl conservation areas are disregarding private vs public ownership. Waterfowl do not know if they are on public or pirvate property All they know is that there is habitat there for them.


The tired arguments
"DU spent all this $$$ on farmer Browns private property and he can shoot ducks on it"
Farmer Brown's property fell within this important conservation area so he signed up and got DU to help him conserve waterfowl. He CAN hunt it absolutely, but he can only hunt 60 days a year for ducks, and can only shoot so many ducks from the place. There are far far more ducks benefitting from that property than are getting shot. There are 300 other days that are NOT duck season on this property DU also spend a great portion of money on public grounds

"All our state duck stamp money goes to DU"
Absolutely true statement. Every bit of your $ from state waterfowl stamps goes to Ducks Unlimited for implementation in Saskatchewan (which is where the majority of Louisiana's ducks come from). The state could have very well spent that money on acquiring more land for public hunting but that costs money to manage it propertly. They could have spent it on a couple of new pumps at Sherburne WMA or any WMA, but then the private landowners that pay for ducks stamps aren't really happy. So its another 'damned if you do' scenario. So in order to get the best bang for the buck, the money went to our duck factory which is in fact Saskatchewan and who the heck else is going to get this done besides DU? This benefits the majority of the waterfowl hunters in Louisiana on both public and private grounds. If you spend it on public grounds, the private hunters are pizzed because they don't hunt there or the public that hunts elsewhere would gripe that it shoulda been spent on 'their' WMA, etc.

"Why doesn't DU just use their $ to buy up ground"
See the easements section above. If DU spent every single dollar they have to buy land, they would have several thousands of acres of land and thats it. They would have to have employees working on that property full time and nothing else would get accomplished. With an easement they get the full benefits without the setbacks of land ownership. The same benefit for waterfowl is there whether its owned or leased and its much cheaper and much much more land can be conserved with easements than buying the land. Win win right? Yes, but people constantly complain about this for reasons unknown

[MarshRat89]

I'm an active DU volunteer. It's frustrating to hear people constantly try to discredit what DU does. While I support delta also. They act delta is in this fight alone. DU= land conservation. Delta = research. Research and conversation go hand in hand. The findings from the research that delta does is utilized by DU!

By the way DU replaced those pumps at sherburne earlier this year. And those terrace in black lake... Who do you think helped build those?

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by MarshRat89

I'm an active DU volunteer. It's frustrating to hear people constantly try to discredit what DU does. While I support delta also. They act delta is in this fight alone. DU= land conservation. Delta = research. Research and conversation go hand in hand. The findings from the research that delta does is utilized by DU!

By the way DU replaced those pumps at sherburne earlier this year. And those terrace in black lake... Who do you think helped build those?

Yep, Delta and DU work together not against one another. In N La there when we had one bad duck season, people started going crazy blaming Ducks Unlimited Then Delta Waterfowl had a huge following because people thought "delta" they thought Louisiana even though delta was started up in the Pacific NW and they are not competing organizations. Its just what happens when rumors get started and the facts are overlooked

A nice side note to this is that Phil Robertson actually tried starting up an organization (much like what the CCA thread folks are implying) that 'got to the bottom of it all' It was called Duck Hunters United, may be something on the net about it. It fell dead, ESPECIALLY when Phil was using this to try and push legislation on duck hunting. Can't provide all the details, but basically Phil said that mallards do not come to Louisiana anymore and that DU is shortstopping the ducks (never heard that one before!), so he tried to get non-migratory mallards established on his property and other properties. Thats a whole different ball of wax and would make for a good thread

[AubreyLaHaye458]

I too am an active DU volunteer. I know they paid for some guys around here, including our farm, to put in new pipes and flood up to make a wetland of sorts. And what bothers me is a lot of people around here that benefited from that still want to down talk DU.

[chasin'tail]

Well with the proposed limits coming on Triple tail, I just wanted to understand how the commission comes to setting or suggesting such limits. If they know little about them and only go on what the other states in the gulf region are doing, is that a good practice or not. I don't have a problem with setting limits on TTT's, juvenile fish should be off limits. And from what I learn @ 18" 50% of female or mature and @ 20" 100% are mature. So 18" isn't out of line, but if their are going with a 100 # commercial limit a trip limit- I feel the recreational limit should be the same. The fish I go after are 10-12# avg. range, that works out to 7-10 fish. I don't think that outrageous, just fair. As of now there isn't a commercial listing for Triple tails so why give a different limits. All other gulf states have same for comm. / rec. except for Florida. It's a 2 fish rec. limit and a 10 fish comm. limit. I'm sure all on the commission are wanting to do the right thing, probably already have made their minds up, but I'll go and say my piece and try to convince them recreational and now a commercial limit should be the same. 7-10 fish per person at 18" min. Is not out of the question.

[Pat Babaz]

Lemme get this straight, DU takes my dues money and builds Marcental terreces in Black Lake or pumps up impoundments in Gum Cove for them to have private honey holes THAT I PAID FOR...... Yeah sign me up for some of that, NAH thats okay

[MarshRat89]

Originally Posted by Pat Babaz

Lemme get this straight, DU takes my dues money and builds Marcental terreces in Black Lake or pumps up impoundments in Gum Cove for them to have private honey holes THAT I PAID FOR...... Yeah sign me up for some of that, NAH thats okay

I apologize, did somebody inform you that DU was investing into personally delivering ducks to your blind? I didn't think so.. Their mission and purpose is to restore and build waterfowl habitat. Personally I'm not even familiar with gum cove. But I can assure you it's not a private section for DU to have private honey holes.

[I make oil]

Originally Posted by Pat Babaz

Lemme get this straight, DU takes my dues money and builds Marcental terreces in Black Lake or pumps up impoundments in Gum Cove for them to have private honey holes THAT I PAID FOR...... Yeah sign me up for some of that, NAH thats okay

seriously? I guess that's the mentality...... I see from your avatar you have kids? Don't you want to ensure that there are still ducks/deer/fish available for them to enjoy the way you do? Who is going to ensure the habitat is there to support them?

[Smalls]

First off, I agree with what DU does. Everyone may not like it, but they are making efforts to ensure habitat. Yeah, they are doing big projects in Gum Cove, Black Lake, Cameron-Creole WS, but where else are they going to go. Most people don't have the land to support these projects, and these are also areas that were historically Marsh and are now open water.

The premise of terracing is that it will eventually create Marsh by capturing sediment in the terrace "field". I have done a lot of work on these terraces. They are effective at creating habitat on and around the terrace, and even make the area shallow enough to support widgeon grass. Lots of it.

DU will always make decisions that are unpopular with someone. That's just the way it is. But one cannot blame not having ducks on DU. I can look at the last few years as a good example. We had a mild winter up until January last year. It did not get cold enough up north to kill all the food for the ducks, so they didn't come down as soon. That being said, I saw ducks everywhere last year. They were spread out all over, because we had so much rain, there was finally food just about anywhere, so the ducks could spread out.

One more example of the good DU has done. After the BP oil spill, DU partnered with NRCS to provide funding to farmers to flood their fields for duck habitat because there was concern that the oil spill would do severe damage to duck habitat. Again, these were private landowners, but farmers were flooding up fields and providing habitat.

When a majority of the country is privately owned, you manage what you can. DU is making lemonade out of lemons. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't like lemonade.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I847 using Tapatalk 2

[ScubaLatt]

I am an avid DU supporter and volunteer. I am a member of the Westlake chapter. One of the rumors that is ridiculous is that DU is shortstopping ducks in Missouri, Nebraska, etc. Some say they are heating ponds or feeding the ducks to stop them from coming south. Ask any biologist and they can tell you that you cannot stop a million year old migration. And you can't feed all the millions of ducks coming down. And you can't keep that much water from freezing to keep the ducks from coming down. The duck migration is dependent upon weather and food. They will go only as far as they have to in order to find food and habitat.

What DU needs now more than ever is for more people in their 20s and 30s to get involved in our local chapters. We have local chapters in Westlake, Lake Charles, Sulphur, Hackberry, Deridder, Leesville, Jennings, Crowley, Pecan Island, Lafayette, and almost every city you can think of. If you want to volunteer for this fine organization please contact me and I can get you in touch with the right people.

We have a great time at our banquet/auctions. Come on out and ensure the future of our duck hunting!

Latt

[MarshRat89]

Very well said! If anyone in vermillion parish is interested in getting involved. You can contact me. We have a meeting next month.

["W"]

I void DU 100% but back in the day I have spent thousands at banquets and so on , i know just support Delta Waterfowl

[MarshRat89]

Originally Posted by "W"

I void DU 100% but back in the day I have spent thousands at banquets and so on , i know just support Delta Waterfowl

Alot of people on your end of the state have decided to do the same. It's sad really. Most of those people based their decision on mendacious rumors.

[Super Spook]

Just want to clear a few things up gents. Delta is way more than research now days. We didn't start fundraising till the late 90s which is why many down here didn't hear of us. Please check out www.deltawaterfowl.org to see all what we do for ducks and duck hunters. Delta started in 1911 and the research program created by James Ford Bell, Aldo Leopold, and Al Hochbaum started in the 30s. James Ford Bell, the founder of General Mills donated his hunting club in the Delta Marsh(hence the name) of Manitoba Canada. The research station is still there today. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions anyone has about Delta.

[MarshRat89]

http://www.deltawaterfowl.org/media/...0-04/olson.php

[Super Spook]

Originally Posted by MarshRat89

http://www.deltawaterfowl.org/media/...0-04/olson.php

Great article by Rob. Thanks for posting.

[PaulMyers]

Originally Posted by Super Spook

Great article by Rob. Thanks for posting.

:thumbup:

["W"]

Another reason I prefer Delta over DU is

DU has become a marketing Whore

[jldsc]

^^I agree with this also...


Sent from an Apple Tree..

[Bird in Hand]

While, I agree with a the start of the first thread, it quickly went down hill and into a stumping post for " How great thou art". Delta Waterfowl is an organization " to secure the future of waterfowl & waterfowl hunting". This simple phrase should speak volumes to those that think "WE" yes "WE" @ Delta only care about waterfowl research. It is a shame that the LWF feels that the "only" organization that can utilize your Duck Stamp Dollars is DU. - This is NOT a crack at DU"- my point is that ALL conservation organization are in place for "OUR - the outdoorsmen's" greater good. Do many of you realize here that over the last 10 years , that the continental US has produced more mallards on average than the Canadian PPR? Yes it is true, Delta, DU, USFWS, are ALL to be thanked for that. Whether it is Hen Houses, Easements,Policy that has been put in place by you supporting the organizations- it is simply the case! As the old saying goes, "let's just all get along"! I have 3 little boys- I want them to be afforded the same great opportunities as we all here have been. Our kids, and the youth today deserve so much more than for us to stand around in a debate over who is better than who! WE ALL- need to focus our attention on hunter recruitment, that is the number that is down- NOT DUCK NUMBERS !